Just one question then, ralph... How do you reconcile your conclusions with the Japanese experience?
Quote from ralph00:
The US had a major deflationary period in from 1873 to 1896. Business went on as usual - there were economic expansions and contractions. During the decade of the 1880's, the PPI (or whatever they called it then) fell by 10%. The CPI fell by 4%. Nominal wages ... they GREW by 23%. It was the greatest period of productivity growth, technology growth, and REAL wealth creation in our country's history.
The 1880's (the Gilded Age) even had their own financial crisis - the panic of 1884. There was no Fed around to print money or bail anybody out. The overnight rate jumped to something like 1000% or more, a bunch of firms went out of business, some folks lost everything ... a couple of months later, the economy returned to normal and the Gilded Age continued.
Deflation is widely misunderstood. In a period of rapid technology and productivity growth (think the invention of the internet), deflation is what should happen. The Fed, by mistakenly shooting for some positive change in the CPI, allows way too high growth of money, which helps cause bubbles. This whole policy of shooting for some positive change in the CPI is idiotic and could only have developed in the halls of our government or universities.
Bernanke should have studied the Gilded Age rather than the Great Depression. My children's futures would be brighter for it.
Quote from Martinghoul:
Just one question then, ralph... How do you reconcile your conclusions with the Japanese experience?

Quote from ralph00:
Quite frankly, I'm surprised either end sold off at all. Didn't seem like news to me - just some board hawks feeling their oats.
We were talking about NLY earlier in the thread. I just saw some figures - its returned something like 470% since its 1997 IPO (which I participated in). S&P return is essentially flat since then. My IRR is much higher than that due to the fact that I've been reinvesting the divvies all along. That's a Buffet-like pick right there (thank you Jim Grant). Silly me. I've been doing all this work studying markets and buying rental props over the years when I just could have stuck it all in NLY in 1997 and gone off to Scottsdale to play golf for the next 12 years.
Like I've always said, I only make two kinds of trades -
1. Those where I lose money
2. Those where I don't take large enough of a position!![]()
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Quote from ralph00:
Couldn't asset sales be a boon for anyone long FF futures or GE calls? Its possible that these could cause a widening in MBS spreads and a rise in mortgage rates, thus having a slowing effect on the economy, thus making it less likely that short end rates go higher.